I have wonderful neighbours. Well, at least the one staying above me is nice. Sometimes when it was about to rain, the aunty above would shout at her window to us "Aunty, it's going to rain, quick bring in the clothes!" Another time, she came downstairs personally and knocked on our door, all just to let us know she was going to hang out clothes which would need to be dripped dry, so that we could bring in our almost-dry clothes. Isn't she such a wonderful and considerate soul? We are truly thankful.
This was a far cry from my old place. During the last 5 years staying in our old house, we had a new neighbour staying above us. It was a lady in her 50s staying with her police officer son and schooling daughter. At first she was courteous and a little of a chatterbox. She would greet my parents enthusiastically every time and my parents had politely returned her smiles and greetings..... until she started hanging her clothes out. She did not believe in scrunching dry her clothes and always hanged out her clothes dripping wet from her bamboo sticks, like rain pouring down. So all the clothes from downstairs, including ours, would kena be the victims. After being "hit" by her dripping clothes a few times, my mom could not take it anymore and went upstairs to knock on her door, to tell her nicely that our almost-dry clothes were all drenched. The aunty (whom my mom later nicknamed "xiao char bor" XCB) insisted she was not the one, and said it was probably from the ones upstairs! She was obviously lying with a straight face!
From then on, XCB seemed to hold a grudge against us. So whenever she saw us putting out the bamboo sticks of clothes to dry, she would quickly follow suit with dripping-wet clothes! We had to play "hide-and-seek" with our timing for drying clothes! And whenever there was a heavy rain, XCB would washed her windows with the rain water and poured more water out of her window, which inadvertently dirtied our windows below, and the water all splashed onto our windows and floors. At times, she would even pour water from washed vegetables out of the window and dirtied our windows instead. Then, XCB also threw out used lunch boxes stained with curry sauce and rice out of the window, which stained our clothes below. She also threw dark powder (like Milo powder) onto our white clothes. And when we were drying dark clothes, she would throw flour or some white powder. I was so mad I had wanted to film her actions. It was then I realised the usefulness of having a clothes dryer - almost bought one. In addition, in the middle of the night like 3-4am, sometimes she would be moving her furniture around and obviously it disturbed our sleep. Whoever in their sane mind would be moving furniture in the middle of the night?? Sometimes it seemed she was throwing marbles or coins on her floor on purpose, continously. She was really a psycho! Then my mom found out sometimes late at night or day time, her Police Officer son would bring his friends home to gamble, playing cards and don't-know-what other games. We were disturbed by the sound of dice-throwing on the floor the whole night! They had no inkling that their "beloved" neighbour staying below (aka. us truly) had "connections" with people from the Police Force for the past 5 decades!
Anyway, we desperately wanted to move and we finally did! Now, XCB is still staying there in the (by now) quiet old neighbourhood as most people had shifted away. The place has become a dilapidated and dungy place, so she can dry her dripping-wet clothes all she like as there are no more other families staying below. And she has no one to exact revenge now. To us, it is good riddance.
From then on, XCB seemed to hold a grudge against us. So whenever she saw us putting out the bamboo sticks of clothes to dry, she would quickly follow suit with dripping-wet clothes! We had to play "hide-and-seek" with our timing for drying clothes! And whenever there was a heavy rain, XCB would washed her windows with the rain water and poured more water out of her window, which inadvertently dirtied our windows below, and the water all splashed onto our windows and floors. At times, she would even pour water from washed vegetables out of the window and dirtied our windows instead. Then, XCB also threw out used lunch boxes stained with curry sauce and rice out of the window, which stained our clothes below. She also threw dark powder (like Milo powder) onto our white clothes. And when we were drying dark clothes, she would throw flour or some white powder. I was so mad I had wanted to film her actions. It was then I realised the usefulness of having a clothes dryer - almost bought one. In addition, in the middle of the night like 3-4am, sometimes she would be moving her furniture around and obviously it disturbed our sleep. Whoever in their sane mind would be moving furniture in the middle of the night?? Sometimes it seemed she was throwing marbles or coins on her floor on purpose, continously. She was really a psycho! Then my mom found out sometimes late at night or day time, her Police Officer son would bring his friends home to gamble, playing cards and don't-know-what other games. We were disturbed by the sound of dice-throwing on the floor the whole night! They had no inkling that their "beloved" neighbour staying below (aka. us truly) had "connections" with people from the Police Force for the past 5 decades!
Anyway, we desperately wanted to move and we finally did! Now, XCB is still staying there in the (by now) quiet old neighbourhood as most people had shifted away. The place has become a dilapidated and dungy place, so she can dry her dripping-wet clothes all she like as there are no more other families staying below. And she has no one to exact revenge now. To us, it is good riddance.
Never umder estimate the fury of an irate neighbor.
ReplyDeleteI've had the misfortune of "offending" some of these neighbors myself.
Where i live, next block there were a group of aunties who would play mahjong way late into the night. and i made the mistake of staring at them from my block.
And i'm still reeling from their "ill effects" to this day as they are still nursing their grudges and would mouth off loudly against me whenever they see me returning home in the evenings.
Wow really, I'm surprised these aunties are so petty or maybe they are just too free. "Scolding", "offending" people is what they do to pass time. Whenever that XCB sees my mom at the old market, she still stare at mom like nobody's business. My mom coolly ignores her which irritates the XCB even more.
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